In mid-May, the Google Buenos Aires office hosted 21 university students selected as 2012-2013 Google Student Ambassadors for the first-ever Latin America Ambassador Summit. The students represent 12 universities across 4 countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Ambassadors traveled from far and wide, some even leaving their home countries for the first time, to make their way to the Google office in Puerto Madero, right in the heart of Buenos Aires.

The two-day summit provided Ambassadors with knowledge and resources necessary to hit campus with a bang in first year of the program in Latin America. Ambassadors attended interactive training sessions about Google products, such as Google Apps for Education, Google+ & Chrome, interacted with Googlers across a variety of different teams & backgrounds, and built an international network of Google peers and friends. And in addition to all the business, students bonded on the rooftop of a city-wide bus tour, competed in some close rounds of Jenga & foosball, and enjoyed many outings to check out the local sights and cuisine of the beautiful city.

The Google Student Ambassador Program is an opportunity for students to serve as liaisons between Google and their universities. This year the program will include over 1,000 students across 65 countries globally.

We hope that bringing these students together helped them to learn more about Google's tools and programs and build lasting relationships with Googlers and fellow Ambassadors. We strongly believe that this outstanding group of Ambassadors in Latin America will continue to utilize the wealth of resources provided to them to not only serve as liaisons between their campuses and Google, but leaders amongst their peers and community.

I’m not at a place called Vertigo but there is so much going on at Google that it is easy to feel dizzy.

This morning, my host (the manager at Google I’m working with) and I were counting the weeks that I have left before the end of my internship and we realized that in two weeks I’ll be done. What that means is that I’ve been at Google for nine weeks. Nine weeks that have passed by so fast that I feel like I won’t have enough time to finish all the things I need to finish and enjoy all the things that I wanted to enjoy at Google before the end of the internship. And I’ve enjoyed quite a few already.

From playing in one of the soccer leagues that are organized at Google (in a full-size natural grass field), to playing laser-tag, participating in a sushi contest, listening to very interesting and candid Googlers speak just to a small group of graduate interns (speakers included Bill Maris, Google Ventures Managing Partner, and Kristen Gil, VP of Business Operations), attending Google I/O (don’t miss the Project Glass demo!), listening to Larry and Sergey at TGIF... the list is neverending.

And I have many other things left for the last two weeks: a wine tasting trip, playing with fellow interns a bowling game in Google’s alley (yes, there is a bowling alley in Google’s HQ!), going to a Giants game this Saturday with other interns, meeting with even more Googlers to learn about what they do and how they contribute to improving the world through tech...

I don’t think I’m going to have time for everything. And that’s a great sign.

Sometimes it feels that Googlers get paid to have fun. And, although it’s not exactly like that, there’s a lot of truth in it. Googlers are brilliant people who work hard to have a big impact in the company and in society. And they are lucky to do it in a company that deeply cares about their people. Working hard on something you enjoy while being taken care of is the perfect mix. And Googlers have it. And Google is better off with happy brilliant Googlers. It’s clearly a win-win.

- Pablo

Fun Google Fact: Google said in its S-1 form that it hoped to raise $2,718,281,828 in the IPO in August 2004. The number seems random but there are few things that are random at Google. 2,718,281,828 are the first 10 digits of the e constant. A bit geeky, I know. But we engineers like these things. Sorry about that! :)

Are you an expert in the Drive API or Google Apps APIs? Are you an expert in Google Apps Script? If you are, then you must have been busy coding away for the Google Apps Developer Challenge since its launch earlier last month.

Now it’s time to wow the judges, as the Google Apps Developer Challenge is now open for submissions! If you would like to submit your application, please submit on the website using one of the three following categories:

If you are not ready, don’t worry -- as you still have time. The submission deadline is 24 August 2012 at 23:59:59 PT. Remember to use the many resources available to you in order to get ready. Ask questions on the Google+ Office Hours and Google Developers Live. Read up on Apps Script and the Drive and Apps APIs on Google Developers. Review the latest updates since Google I/O as well as the pre-submission checklist. Post questions and comments using the hashtag #gappschallenge on Google+. Review, and most importantly, finalize your application!

Currently, I am half way into my internship. At this point in time, I can confidently proclaim that I am a much better computer scientist. I spent a better part of my first month doing a lot of learning. A good craftsman must surely know his tools, right? I have learnt a lot of new technologies, especially the ones that are directly relating to my project. I have had a very interesting learning experience. My new found knowledge didn't just come on a silver platter, but it came with a price. Whenever I conversed with my fellow team mates, maybe to make a technical inquiry, I normally got an answer that made me realize just how much I barely know the concept. The software engineer probably mentioned a technical term that I had no clue about, meaning I had to do more research to understand the answer. As a result, I was constantly digging for more knowledge.

My internship in Google is not only a learning experience, but also a time to make some significant contribution to Google. Apart from learning, I have also been working on my intern project. I assumed that I would be given numerous miniature projects and bug fixes as part of my internship, but my manager actually gave me the task of adding a single feature to the system to span the duration of my internship. At this point in time, I have completed my project awaiting to demonstrate it to the team and get some feedback, before submitting my code for review. In my mind, I keep thinking, "What if my project is accepted and becomes an integral part of the system in production?" That would mean millions of people around the world will be able to use it at one point.

It is such a fulfilling feeling knowing that you can actually contribute something positive to a company such as Google, something that can potentially enhance the lives of millions of Google users throughout the world. I finally understand what motivates Google employees to be Googlers. With that kind of a motivation, waking up on a daily basis to go to work cannot be much of a problem. Recently, I had a chat with a friend back in Kenya, and I mentioned how the office is full of cool stuff like the micro-kitchens, games and other recreational facilities. The next thing that came from her mouth was, "So when exactly do you guys work?" At that time, I didn't have a solid answer to this question so I ended up saying that people just get work done because you have to be productive. What I should have answered saying is, "When you are passionate about what you are doing, nothing will stop you from working..."

In Google, you never have Monday blues.

Fun Google Fact - Every Friday, there is TGIF where Google provides free drinks at the office and all have a fun theme.

The Tokyo summer heat brings just enough of a breeze to ring my neighbor’s wind chime on his balcony but it’s not enough to stop the unbearable humidity from transforming into sweat. The onset of summer here coincides with my halfway point as an intern at Google, and what a ride it’s been! I even had the chance to experience my first earthquake at the office!

As part of my effort to learn about what it means to be a product manager at Google, I’ve made it a point to meet 3 different people for lunch per week and ask them what they thought made a good product manager. I really like the advice Ken Tokusei, the Director for Search, gave me. He said to imagine where you want to be when your feature launches, and then to work back from there.

One might imagine that all you need to launch a feature is to make it, but there’s people to reach out to and a lot of priorities to weigh each feature against - is this going to have the most amount of impact? Is it going to take a lot of effort to launch? Who needs to review it and approve it? What sort of UI changes does this require? Does it make business sense?

Being an APM also means having a very close ear to the ground, and listening to what users are saying and reacting to. The product forums are a great way to monitor feedback and reactions. Interestingly, there are two kinds of people who react to captions on YouTube: those who have no idea they exist, and those who use them prolifically as a way to reach deaf and hearing-impaired users.

I also try to find ways to get involved in different Google events. I pulled an all-nighter to watch the 2012 Google I/O keynote livestreamed from the Tokyo office, simultaneously translated into Japanese for 100 invitees. The Google Glass demo was at 3 in the morning, but no one could sleep through all that excitement and adrenaline!

One of the memorable highlights so far outside the Google office was participating in an intern offsite trip to Mount Fuji. The trip was almost canceled as a result of bad weather, but due to a series of remarkable good luck, most of us made it to the top. We even managed to host a Google+ Hangout from about 10,000ft up!

The Tokyo office also welcomed the other Associate Product Manager intern, Aki, who is working with the Chrome team. He’s actually also from Stanford, and we often catch breakfast together.

- Rio

Fun Google Fact: The floor I’m on at the Google office has conference rooms named after the train stops on the Yamanote train line in the same exact order (since the rooms are essentially in a loop around the building, and the train line is also a giant loop). The Yamanote line carries almost as much passengers on its single line every day as the entire New York subway system does in the same time!

attended a social here in Bakery Square with the other Google interns and the Disney Research Lab interns

perfected my latte technique (thanks to easy access to the espresso machines in the microkitchen down the hall and a few coffee aficionado coworkers willing to show a newbie the ropes)

joined the intern team for an office-wide game of Wits & Wagers, and won a copy of the Wits & Wagers board game for coming in second

went to Eracers with the rest of the SRE team for a fun team-building offsite

Me cruisin' around the track.
Photo credit: Mark Reis

Our afternoon at Erasers was eventful: we raced go-karts, played mini golf, and playfully antagonized each other in bumper boats. I didn’t realize until a few of my teammates and I were already on the water that the boats had little squirt guns built in...

It was a sweltering 35°C out, though, so the resulting water fight was actually pretty refreshing! We all got ice cream en route back to the office, and I’m pretty sure less than half of the team is sunburnt, so I’ll call the trip a success.

It hasn’t been all fun and games, though -- I’ve been working hard on my project. I finally settled on the overall design of how I’m going to make the data I’m managing accessible to the people who need it, so now I’m digging in and writing code. As a matter of fact, because I’m now getting close to finishing my first project, I’ve just been given a second one (which is going to be a way to test a part of the Google Shopping infrastructure from beginning to end).

Even though I’ve been here for over a month, I still feel like there’s so much to learn. But my coworkers have been both quick to give informative feedback on current design ideas and accessible to bounce new ideas off of (and explain things I don’t quite understand), which has been invaluable while climbing up the learning curve.

Until next time,
Jess

Fun Google Fact: Google offices offer free freshly-cooked meals to their employees (in addition to the microkitchens, which have lots of snacks and drinks and can be visited at any time). Google Pittsburgh specifically has breakfast, lunch, and dinner available every day. There are plenty of options if you follow a particular diet -- vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or just trying to eat healthy -- and as someone who is an avid cook, let me be the first to say that the food is consistently delicious.

Introduction: From June 18th - 20th, Google Zurich welcomed 90 of the brightest computer science students from universities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa for our annual EMEA Scholars’ Retreat. Scholars and Finalists of the Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities, Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and the Google Zawadi Africa Scholarship descended on the office for three jam-packed days of workshops, technical talks, a poster session, career panels and lots of networking opportunities.

We recently sat down with one of this year’s scholars, Clara Bayarri, who has attended the retreat twice, last year as a finalist and this year as a scholar.

Welcome back to Google, Clara. Tell us about your experience at the Google Scholars' Retreat in 2011.
Last year my co-workers encouraged me to apply for the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. I was incredibly surprised when I found out I was a finalist! The 2011 Scholars’ Retreat was an incredible experience that allowed me to meet people from all over EMEA and, on a personal level, helped my self-confidence grow. Prior to the retreat, I wouldn’t have imagined the possibility of working at Google. Those three days opened my eyes to many possibilities.

Clara (right) and Luz hanging out
at Scholars' Retreat

It sounds like you’ve met a lot of computer science students in EMEA. How beneficial did you find this? Did you make any new connections?You meet so many people from so many countries studying and working in areas very similar to your own. At the 2011 retreat, I was lucky in that I shared a room with another Spanish girl, Luz Rello who lives in the same city as me. She’s a PhD at one university, and I’m an undergraduate at another. We connected on a personal level from the moment we met and have become great friends. Even after the retreat we continue to see each other for coffee, and this spring we decided to start collaborating.

Tell us a bit more about your collaboration.One day over coffee, Luz and I discovered an area where we could collaborate together. Her PhD focuses on how technologies can help people with dyslexia and I had a few months of experience in mobile application development. Together, we came up with the idea to develop a mobile game for children with dyslexia. Luz designed the exercises to be included from observations and studies related to her PhD, and I developed the application, which we named Dyseggxia. It’s been released for free and you can check it out here.

At this year's Scholars' Retreat, what was the highlight for you?This year I was much more relaxed during the retreat and enjoyed the time with all the other students. I especially had a lot of fun with the User Experience Design workshop, as we got the chance to act as User Experience designers and work on an invented new product as a team of students.

So, what are the next steps for you?Actually, I’ve just started as a Software Engineering Intern at the Google London office. I’m really looking forward to the next three months. After that, I will go back home to graduate from my Bachelor's and then hope to continue studying somewhere else. And, thanks to my experience with Luz, I have become very interested in Natural Language Processing as well as Interface Design and Usability/Accessibility, so I will probably try to continue down one (or all) of these paths :)

While there are over 1,000 technical interns hard at work this summer in our Google offices across North America, we’re also looking for some talented students to join us for internships this fall. Are you a PhD student with a background in machine learning, data mining, or computer vision? Then Google may be the place for you.

Our fall technical internship opportunities for PhD students are full-time positions with flexible start and end dates. You’ll be expected to commit to at least three months of full-time work as we want to make sure we provide you with a valuable learning experience and a deeper understanding of Google’s work environment, culture, and delicious food!

We encourage you to apply online today! Still a bachelor’s or master’s student? Fall internship opportunities are also available for you here.

I knew interning with YouTube would be an extremely enjoyable experience from the start, but after being assigned to work on the live stream for Lollapalooza I realized this could easily be the best summer of my life. Between ACL, SXSW, Nocturnal, and many other live music shows, much of my free time at school is spent squished between thousands of sweaty people dancing and yelling the night away. Helping manage and run this YouTube program is much more than a cool project, it’s an opportunity to share one of my deepest passions with people all over the world. Rewind to ten years ago when I would stay up late at night listening to Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Scar Tissue and ask my brother if he knew any “young Kentucky girls” and what a “scarlett draw” was anyway? I can only hope that somewhere in the middle of nowhere, TX, some little kid and his older brother will be tuning in to see RHCP live at Lollapalooza and wondering all the same things.

Aside from working on the Lollapalooza stream and other projects, I’ve been taking time to soak up all the great perks of working at Google. I can’t explain how wonderful it is to be able to walk down the hall to a fridge full of unlimited drinks and a microkitchen stocked with endless snacks, brainstorm project ideas over a game of billiards, and play with beautiful dogs every day I go to work. This past weekend, I joined over 1,000 ecstatic Googlers to march down 42nd in San Francisco in the city’s annual Pride Parade. What I thought would be a few casual miles of walking and waving erupted into an enormous dance party that would give even the best music fests a run for their money. The energy, love, and happiness that our group exuded is something I will never be able to form into words. I looked around at all my coworkers laughing, dancing, and grinning, and, for one of the first times in my life, hoped I was staring at my future.

Fun Google Fact: Did you know that the conference rooms at YouTube’s office are named after popular games, memes, and famous YouTube videos? A few of my favorite rooms include Socially Awkward Penguin, More Cowbell, and Q*bert. Our printers are also named after members of the Wu-Tang Clan!

June 3rd is a day that will go down in my history books. It is not only the day when my internship commenced, but it is also the first time I stepped outside the boundaries of my country Kenya. From the onset, I knew it was going to be one hell of an experience. My imagination ran wild not knowing what to expect in a different country (Switzerland), much less my first real work experience at an amazing company such as Google. Just like most of the interns, I had watched the videos on YouTube about life at Google so I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy myself.

At the airport, I met up with another Google intern from Kenya called Victor and we sat next to each other the entire duration of the two flights to Zurich. Just as we were about to land in Zurich airport, the aerial view of Zurich was breathtaking. Seeing how green it was and the “tiny” buildings, coupled by the very well laid out roads, I could not help but take pictures. Victor just had to whip out his video camera too.

I could feel the cold penetrating all the way to my bones despite the fact that I was dressed like a polar bear; if that was summer, I thanked God I wasn't around for winter! As I was taken to my room, for once in my lifetime I got to board an electric train. The speed at which it could go fascinated me! All the while, my eyes were fixed outside staring at everything in general because they were all new to me and was all so nice and clean. It was a rainy evening on a weekend when I arrived, one of those days when you just feel like staying in and laying around in bed. I guess that’s why there wasn’t many people in the streets as I went to my place, but then it was like that almost all subsequent days. I thought to myself... "I could get used to walking around without having to bump shoulders every now and then...”

The next day, I made sure I left as early as I could. Who would want to be late the first day at work at Google! Considering I couldn't remember the route I used to get to my place, I left 2 hours earlier so that I could allow myself some time to get lost a couple of times yet still make it to the office on time.

My first two weeks at Google were so eventful. I made sure I attended all the talks because each talk I attended made me realize how much I have to learn and conceptualize before I become a full-time Googler (my ultimate goal). I must have listened in on countless conversations by the Googlers around because there is a lot of brilliance flying around at the office and Google facilitates this by bringing employees together multiple times. All the employees are undoubtedly intelligent and knowledgeable. I remember once having sat through a conversation whereby an engineer was talking about the project he was doing, and he happened to mention about 7 concepts that I only heard of in theory. I have never been challenged that much.

It's now been about a month into my internship, and yet I still have to make inquiry to get my way around the office. It is enormous and well designed. By the time my internship comes to an end, I promised myself to have taken pictures of every corner of the office. It’s not just the office, but it’s the people in the office that impress me most. Just from the look on everyone's faces, you can be able to tell with certainty that all the employees are gratified. Everyone is cheerful and ready to say “Hi” to a fellow Googler or Noogler (new Googler).

Each and every day at Google poses exciting new challenges that I strive to overcome, while at the same time learning from. I have no doubt that by the end of my internship, I am going to have a hard time saying goodbye to Google.

Have you ever been to an event with 100 female computer science students programming together in groups? I’m proud to say that I went to such an event at the Google Tokyo office. As a member of the GLIDE community, I was invited to the Google Technical Workshop featuring GLIDE on a Saturday in late May. The event was aimed to encourage women in computer science to pursue careers in technology, especially in its creation. The challenge was to make a webpage with HTML and JavaScript that searches people using Google+ APIs.

I was blown away the moment I walked into the room. Not only was I surprised by the sheer number of female computer science students, but also by the diversity. I met international students studying in Japan as well as people in various grades ranging from bachelor to doctorate levels. There were also people from all over Japan, including a person who came from Hokkaido located more than 500 miles away. She had flown in just for this event! Despite our various backgrounds, the one thing that we all shared was our passion for programming.

After we split up into groups, we tried to dive right into creating the webpage but we quickly realized that it would be difficult. Some of the members in my group had never used JavaScript. None of us were familiar with Google+ APIs or had any experience programming in a group environment. Where do we start? How do we write HTML and JavaScript? What is JSON? How do we distribute the work amongst ourselves so we can all contribute? And most importantly, how do we figure all of this out in three hours? There was so much to do and learn in such a short period of time. With the support of Google, the search engine, and Google engineers, we were able to complete the page in the given time!

At the end of the three hours, each group presented their solution along with their learnings and challenges. We all agreed that it was a great learning experience despite the challenges we faced. When I look at the coursework offered at my school, there are limited opportunities to learn about JavaScript. We do not have the chance to code in a group environment either. Through this event, I learned the fun and benefits of coding as a team and the excitement of creating a product. I can’t wait to attend the next event!

Wow! It has been only 5 weeks since my internship started and Google already feels like home (and that’s not easy considering that my hometown is 6,000 miles away!).

I moved with my wife and son (see picture here - he is the cute one!) to the Bay Area because I wanted to learn all I could about business management and apply what I learn in a cool tech company that improves the world. The math was simple for me: business management + tech companies = Bay Area. This is how I became part of the class of 2013 of the MBA at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. When it came down to looking for a summer internship, I asked myself: what cool tech companies do I know that are improving the world? Obviously, Google was at the top of that list.

I am now a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) MBA Intern at Google’s mobile ads team. Being surrounded by such a talented group of people with a lot of experience in something relatively new as mobile ads has been an intense and rewarding experience so far. I am learning every day about an area that is critical, and will be even more, for the entire internet space: mobile advertising. With millions of people accessing the internet from mobile devices as their primary point of access, mobile ads become more and more relevant every day. How can Google improve user’s experience in mobile? How can Google serve the most relevant information and ads to our users? What should be the value proposition for all our stakeholders (advertisers, publishers, app developers, and users)?

During the summer I am getting to dig deep into these and other questions in the mobile space. From brainstorming how Google can improve its local-mobile ads offering to defining and measuring the metrics that are relevant to understand whether our efforts to improve mobile internet are being successful. So much to do in so little time!

But there is much more than work at Google. I’m running out of space in this post but I will talk about everything non-work related in following posts. There is so much to talk about... I could write an entire blog about it myself! Stay tuned to learn about some of the best perks and activities you can find in a company!

Fun Google Fact: There are 26 (26!!) different cafes in Google’s HQ in Mountain View and each of them serves different food. Some interns are on the quest of trying them all for breakfast, lunch, and dinner before the end of their summer internship! Any doubt why the famous Google 15 is a real thing?

Earlier this month we hosted 148 of the 170 university students selected as 2012-2013 Google Student Ambassadors in Nairobi, Kenya for the first-ever SSA Ambassador Summit. These students - most of whom were traveling outside their home countries for the first time - represent over 100 universities across 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Angola, Cameroon, Cote d'ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

Sub-Saharan Africa Google Student Ambassador Class of 2013 at the summit in Nairobi

The three day summit covered lots of ground with interactive training sessions on Google products including Google Apps for Education, Map Maker and Search for Educators. But it wasn’t all business. The students also built lasting friendships over bowling, picnicking, dancing and movie-watching. On the last day, they had the chance to showcase their wide-ranging talents at the Gala Talent Night. Here the students - clad in traditional African attire native to their respective cultures - sang, recited poetry, danced and cheered on one another.

The Google Student Ambassador program is an opportunity for students to serve as liaisons between Google and their universities. This year the program will include over 1,000 students across 65 countries globally, which represents 150% growth from last year alone. Last year’s class of SSA Ambassadors accomplished amazing things - as evidenced by one Ambassador named Biggy (read his story here). So, we can hardly imagine what’s in store for the year ahead as the program expands into new regions and new universities. We hope that bringing these outstanding students together helped them to learn more about Google’s tools and programs: they can now go back and share with their communities and peers to help bring Africa online.